THE JOY OF REVERSAL (3 OF 52)
Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-4, Isaiah 35:6-10, Isaiah 35
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The Joy of Reversal (3 of 52)
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
Isaiah 35:1-10
Things change. That is how life functions. Nothing stays the same. Something not changing is long dead. Those things we perceive as permanent undergo transformation. It is the way of rivers, granite mountains, planets, stars, and diamond rings. The continents drift, seasons come and go, and tides pound the sands on the shore. The more we want to think things are unchanging, the more they slip from our grasp. God created a world that insists on change. To live is to transform. While we may cling to nostalgia, God calls us to more. Might being adaptable to what God is doing be the secret of real joy?
Children are filled with the wonder of transformation and discovery. The world is their laboratory of adventure and a constantly shifting understanding of creation. They readily adapt to new concepts, changes, and growth. We find ourselves filled with vicarious joy as we watch them learn to walk, talk, and become excited at new discoveries we have long found tedious. As they grow, however, they become more like us, trying to force the world into boxes that just never do justice to life's complexities. Just when they think they have something figured out, new data that destroys their notions of how life works. For the most part, children find wonder and joy in that process. We tend to resist new data and turn sullen. When God wants to redirect us, we pull away and plug our ears.
That is kind of what Judah was experiencing. They were in the midst of the trauma of exile. They were being forced to adapt to new circumstances, new languages, new cultures, and suffer the loss of their homeland and established patterns of life. They were at a loss to find meaning, purpose, and belonging in their existence, as they had been ripped away from all they knew and loved, or at least found unremarkable and dull. Living as refugees dragged into exile lowered a cloud of despair upon ...
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
Isaiah 35:1-10
Things change. That is how life functions. Nothing stays the same. Something not changing is long dead. Those things we perceive as permanent undergo transformation. It is the way of rivers, granite mountains, planets, stars, and diamond rings. The continents drift, seasons come and go, and tides pound the sands on the shore. The more we want to think things are unchanging, the more they slip from our grasp. God created a world that insists on change. To live is to transform. While we may cling to nostalgia, God calls us to more. Might being adaptable to what God is doing be the secret of real joy?
Children are filled with the wonder of transformation and discovery. The world is their laboratory of adventure and a constantly shifting understanding of creation. They readily adapt to new concepts, changes, and growth. We find ourselves filled with vicarious joy as we watch them learn to walk, talk, and become excited at new discoveries we have long found tedious. As they grow, however, they become more like us, trying to force the world into boxes that just never do justice to life's complexities. Just when they think they have something figured out, new data that destroys their notions of how life works. For the most part, children find wonder and joy in that process. We tend to resist new data and turn sullen. When God wants to redirect us, we pull away and plug our ears.
That is kind of what Judah was experiencing. They were in the midst of the trauma of exile. They were being forced to adapt to new circumstances, new languages, new cultures, and suffer the loss of their homeland and established patterns of life. They were at a loss to find meaning, purpose, and belonging in their existence, as they had been ripped away from all they knew and loved, or at least found unremarkable and dull. Living as refugees dragged into exile lowered a cloud of despair upon ...
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